Drone delivery is presently a nascent service that promises to transport a package from a variety of sources directly to a customer's location. In a vast number of cases that desired destination is the customer's home or place of business. Today that service is executed manually by a delivery person and incurs the overhead of the transportation vehicles, such as trucks, to move the person and packages, as well as the cost of employing the person executing the driving and manual delivery. In many cases the customer is not available to receive the package and an attempt must be made at a later time, thereby increasing the cost of the delivery.
Drone delivery offers the promise of reducing the logistical cost for a class of packages under a certain size and weight threshold. Yet, because existing drone delivery processes do not convey a person to execute the final step in the delivery process—that of ringing the doorbell and handing the package to the customer—drone delivery systems target areas near a person's home where the package could be either landed or lowered via a tether. Most existing systems or proposed systems offer no mitigation of potential theft if the customer is not present to receive the package. Additionally, in cases of inclement weather the package may remain outside for an excessive period of time, potentially resulting in damage to its contents. Any drone delivery device that does not protect the package from inclement weather poses a significant liability to the shipping entity. Additionally, if the contents of the package have a desirable aroma the unattended package could be damaged by an animal in pursuit of its contents. It is for these and potentially other undesirable reasons that the promise of drone delivery may not be realized unless a more secure and controlled means is made available to accept the package.
In the case where a customer lives in a city, and especially if they live in a multi-tenant building with moderate foot traffic, the only existing secure location for a drone to deliver a package may be on the roof. The promise of drone delivery may be highly constrained if every delivery requires that the customer climb to the roof to retrieve their package. This is especially true in the cases were the building is both high and requires ascending a staircase to access the roof. In the cases were the multi-tenant roof is not designed to be accessed from within, that delivery channel may be unavailable. Additionally, an elderly person should not be expected to ascend stairs or a ladder each time a package arrives. Aside from entering through an open door, the only other portal to transport a package into the interior of a building may be through the window.